I Bought The Monk's Ferrari (7 page)

'Mr Mittal, what would you do if this deal does not go through,' finally the anchor asked him.

'Well ...' he paused 'for me, that option does not exist.' The confidence in himself, his team and his ability to fulfil his aspiration was very evident.

What makes this special was that, when he made this comment, the deal valued at $33.1bn, was far from being in his pocket. The entire European Union was against this deal. There were murmurs of racism which were gathering steam. It was a mammoth task Mittal was staring at. No one gave him a chance. Arcelor too, had found a suitor in Severstal (a steel company based in Russia) and the CEO of Arcelor and Severstal had gone on record and announced the proposed merger of Arcelor with Severstal.

Getting to the point of closure of the merger involved a bruising fight for Mittal. In January 2006, Mitel's offer of Euro 18.6bn offer for Arcelor was harshly and swiftly rebuked by Arcelor's management and a chorus of European politicians who criticised everything from his looks, to his language, to his mannerisms, to his Indian origin and the quality of his company's steel. Arcelor seniors refused to even meet with Mittal until a string of demands were met, and simultaneously orchestrated a Euro 13bn deal with Severstal of Russia. Despite all this, Mittal prevailed and managed to create a conglomerate which is the largest steel manufacturing unit in the world. He had the attitude and the confidence to deal with every situation and the faith in himself. Had he surrounded himself with a set of doubters, he would never have made this deal.

I dream my painting and then paint
my dream.

V
INCENT
V
AN
G
OGH

The Ferrari is a dream ... a desire ... a passion. You need extraordinary skills to acquire it. It is not for the ordinary lot. To get there you need to set your goals high and go after them with a singleminded arid a fearless dedication: the way in which Naina pursued her aspirations.

COMMANDMENT ONE

To acquire the Ferrari you need to ASPIRE.

And when you aspire, do not compromise
for anything but the best.

I
t was a Saturday afternoon, Dharini and I decided to go out for a movie. With Anusha in tow, we settled on
Ta Ra Rum Pum,
the latest Hindi blockbuster, from the Yashraj Films banner. With Anusha around, we normally avoid the late night shows, and hence, matinee show it was. The movie was very emotional and for the first time I saw my little one cry in a theatre. She was extremely touched by all that the children in the movie went through and did for the sake of their parents.

The movie got over at six in the evening, and after stepping out of IMAX Multiplex at Wadala, we walked into the Crossword Bookstore within the same complex. As we were going through the books someone called out my name.

One ship drives east and another drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow
'Tis the set of sails and not the gales
Which tells us the way to go.

E
LLA
W
HEELER
W
ILCOX

'Hey, Ravi! What a pleasant surprise!'

I turned around, and found a middle-aged man, standing right next to me, grinning from ear to ear. Seeing a blank look on my face he hastened to add, 'I'm Paresh! Don't you recognise me?'

'Oh yes, of course. How could I forget you, Paresh?'

Paresh, my batch-mate at IIM-Bangalore, was extremely studious who always ranked among the toppers. If my memory serves me right, he ranked third in the batch of 180 students. Very intelligent. He had come there with his daughter, who was a little older than Anusha.

We started talking. Except for some extra pounds around his midrif, he looked just the same. He resided somewhere in Bandra, very close to my home so I offered to drive them back, which he accepted. On the way back, he invited me to his house for a quick drink before heading back home. I turned to look at Dharini and Anusha to check if it was fine with them. Anusha was insistent on playing with Paresh's daughter, so I dropped Dharini, Anusha and Paresh's daughter at our house and went back with him for a drink.

I could make out from his body language that he had been through a fair bit of stress in life. He was living alone with his daughter, which was rather unexpected. Though he did not say much initially, he opened up after a few drinks. Apparently, his wife had left him and gone back to her parents about two years back. It was in no way a happy marriage to start with, and then to add woe to his worries he lost his job.

Paresh was working in the retail business of BNP Paribas. One day at work, he was called along with a few of his colleagues into the conference room. Initially, it appeared to be a normal meeting. But once inside the conference room, they were all given an envelope with a cheque of three months' salary as notice pay and their services were terminated. BNP was retreating from the retail business that they had got into only a few years back and they retrenched almost all their staff in the retail business. Paresh was one of the unfortunate lot. He was a victim of circumstances, of the faulty and hasty strategy of an organisation.

This proved to be the proverbial last straw which broke the camel's back. When he returned home and announced that he had lost his job, his wife went hysterical. Paresh was not wrong in seeking support on this traumatic day. But his wife was only adding to his misery. His thoughts were disrupted when he felt someone tugging at his kurta. It was his daughter Avantika. She stood next to him with a worried look on her face. He picked her up and nestled her on his lap.

'What happened, daddy?'

'Nothing, beta.'

'Why is mummy upset?'

'Nothing Avani, daddy's office has closed down. So, daddy has no job now. He'll not have to go to office anymore. So Mummy's worried.'

'Yeeeeeaaa! What fun!' Paresh glared at her but Avantika did not stop. She was running around with joy screaming 'Yeeeeaaaooow!!'

'Avantika, Stop it!' screamed Paresh.

'Dad, so you will not go to office?'

He nodded.

'Yippeee! You will be with me throughout the day.' Little did Avantika realise that this innocuous statement of hers would change her father's life forever. Her words struck Paresh like lightning. He was worried about the direction his life was taking and his daughter had already given him a reason to fight back. She had found a positive streak in what he thought was the end of the world. She found a reason to be happy amidst the gloom. The reason for her joy was that Paresh would now be with her throughout the day ... something she had been yearning for long.

This simple incident changed Paresh's entire perspective of looking at life. He understood that life always has a positive streak in it. It is just a matter of finding it out. It may seem to be a search among the ruins at the beginning, but once it is found it lasts forever. It becomes a habit, an imbibed culture. That was what happened to Paresh. After the incident, he started looking at life positively, and resolved to be happy, always.

Often, when you set out to acquire the Ferrari, you will encounter nerve-wrecking obstacles. It is important, that you remain optimistic even on the face of such crisis.

There is a legend of a saint who met three workers building a temple at the foothills of Himalayas. The terrain was rough and the weather was harsh. The workers were sweaty and tired but laboured away. It was not an easy task. The saint was thirsty, so he stopped for some water. While he was filling water in his sack, the first worker came along.

Overcome by curiosity, the saint asked him, 'What are you doing, my friend?'

'I am laying the bricks.' He drank water from the tap and went away.

The saint then walked up to the second worker and asked him the same question.

He answered, 'I am trying to earn money to meet my ends.'

The saint went to the third worker to ask him as well.

'I am building the largest temple anyone has ever seen,' he replied.

All the three workers were working on the same temple, but with different perspectives. The third worker was probably the happiest and at total peace with himself. The difference between him and the other two was that he had a long-term vision, a wider perspective in envisaging the end result of his creation; therefore, he enjoyed his work. The others saw it as something which had to be done and resigned themselves to their fate. The third worker had positive thought and high aspiration, which the other two lacked.

Let me tell you about P S. Jayakumar, the head of sales and distribution for Citibank in India. He joined the bank in 1986 and had been with the organisation for over fifteen years. He was responsible for four business-lines of Citibank (personal loans, mortgages, auto loans and liability sales) and was one of the senior most employees of the bank. A very influential person indeed, within the Citibank circle.